SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A skit on China’s widely-watched Lunar New Year gala on state television featuring a Chinese actress made up to appear African has provoked accusations of racism online.

The actress, Lou Naiming, appeared on stage in colorful garb with her face and arms colored brown, carrying a fruit basket on her head, and accompanied by someone costumed as a monkey.

A black woman playing her daughter declares that she wants to study in China but is worried her mother will not agree.

Lou replies, “Why wouldn’t I agree? A Chinese volunteer medical team saved my life when I was young. Now Chinese kids are building a railroad for us...I love Chinese people. I love China!”

The internet lit up with criticism after the show aired on Thursday night, the eve of Lunar New Year.

“The racial discrimination was so clear,” wrote one microblogger, who goes by the name Chen Fei Tutu.

“Is this our nation propagating Chinese values? When white people discriminate against us, we are strongly dissatisfied, but now we are discriminating against Africans in such high profile. How shameful.”

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request on Friday from Reuters seeking comment on the racism allegations. COWARDS

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Mark Twain

RACISM IN CHINA
When it comes to foreign nations against which racism in China exists, the Japanese are particularly disliked. The use of slurs, such as “little Japanese” and even “Japanese devils”, is fairly common. The two countries’ bloody history — particularly Japan’s occupation of China and the atrocities against Chinese citizens during World War II — is neither forgotten nor forgiven. According to a BBC World Service poll, nine out of ten Chinese think negatively of their island neighbors.

Black people are often regarded suspiciously, too, and considered as all coming from Africa, regardless of their actual origin. In a society where light skin is still deemed desirable and seen as a sign of fortune, darker skin is often associated with less favorable traits. There have, for instance, been reports of African-American English teachers (and thus native speakers) being turned down in favor of white English teachers with non-native language skills.

China’s economic investment in a number of African countries may well have helped to create the prejudice that all Africans are poor and profiting from money that should rather be invested at home, thus fostering racism in China. In Guangzhou, where a large number of Africans have settled over the last few years, racial tensions have been particularly high.

Typically, however, racism in China is more common in remote areas than in the big cities with a large number of foreign residents. China’s long isolation from the rest of the world has also helped to foster stereotypes.

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. Mark Twain